


Wrapping Gifts One-Handed Is Hard

by heartsdesire456



Series: 25 Days of Fandom [18]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Minor Injuries, Wrapping Presents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 04:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2798759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz was getting frustrated. He just wanted to make sure everybody’s gifts were done right, and part of that involved being wrapped well…. And currently, he was stuck looking down at a lumpy package with bits of paper sticking out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrapping Gifts One-Handed Is Hard

**Author's Note:**

> I'M NOT LATE TODAY! mUAHAHAHHAA
> 
> (Yes, I know, another FitzMack but still.... its FITZMACK!)

Fitz was getting frustrated. He just wanted to make sure everybody’s gifts were done right, and part of that involved being wrapped well…. And currently, he was stuck looking down at a lumpy package with bits of paper sticking out.

“Hey, what’s up, Turbo?” Fitz looked up as Mack walked in. His arm was still in a sling, and every time he saw him Fitz got a little choked up from remembering what it was like to think that he was gone. Mack walked closer, leaning on the table. “You having trouble?” he asked knowingly.

Fitz sighed, letting his head thump to the table. “I can’t wrap presents for shit.” He held up his left hand. “You were doing so well, hand! Why are you failing me again?!” he complained dramatically. 

Mack chuckled and reached out, taking Fitz’s left hand in his right, gently stroking at the tendons in the back of his hand. “Have you tried just working out the muscles?” he asked, bending Fitz’s fingers one at a time. Fitz’s face was growing warmer and warmer as Mack’s strong fingers massaged his hand. “You get in such a hurry, Fitz,” he murmured, distracted by the way he was gently working Fitz’s fingers back and forth. “Your brain runs faster than your hands can keep up.” He smiled up at him playfully. “Turbo.”

Fitz rolled his eyes, smiling bashfully. “So that’s why you call me that. I thought it was how much I run my mouth all the time.”

Mack smirked. “Well there is that. Your voice is almost able to keep up with your brain, even when you have troubles. The thing is, your body’s got regular human limits. Your brain doesn’t.”

Fitz grumbled softly. “Some days I have the horrible feeling I know what it must be like to be Stephen Hawking.” He looked up at Mack, shaking his head. “If for some reason I ever lose the ability to speak or use my hands at all, just shoot me and put me out of my misery.”

Mack rolled his eyes. “You have a little trouble communicating. That’s far from being Stephen Hawking.” He curled Fitz’s fingers over his hand and squeezed before letting go of his hand. “Here, try now.”

Fitz smiled bashfully. “Thanks,” he said, undoing the tape on what he’d just wrapped, trying not to waste too much wrapping paper. “I’m just so frustrated. I want Christmas to be at least somewhat decent with all the shit we’ve had to deal with lately. It’s been a really terrible year and I just-“ He stopped, sighing. “It’s a shitty time for my hands to be bad. My words are better lately. It’s just my hands giving me more trouble when I need them far more than my words.” He shook his head, going back to undoing tape. “Words are pretty useless when everybody isn’t talking to each other.”

Mack watched him as he worked for a while, but for once, the silence wasn’t uncomfortable and strained the way Fitz had been dealing with everybody else. Mack’s silence was comfortable. Mack’s presence was always comfortable. Fitz couldn’t think of a single time he felt uncomfortable when Mack was with him. Fitz finally finished without messing up too much of the paper on the edges that he’d have to cut a new piece, and he sighed, moving around in his seat before settling to start again. He looked up at Mack and smiled. “Alright, be amazed as I tame the stupid wrapping paper,” he joked and Mack laughed, shaking his head.

“You’re crazy,” he accused playfully.

Fitz couldn’t get the tape dispenser to tear with his left hand and he glared at it, only to be surprised when Mack reached out, taking it from him. “Here. I’ll do the tape. You hold the paper.” He tore off a piece of tape and, when Fitz held the paper down, he taped it for him. “See? Teamwork, Turbo.”

Fitz bit his lip and nodded. “Alright. We’ll do this together,” he agreed, pushing the tape dispenser closer to Mack before going and bending the paper at the corner, carefully, so that he could tape it. They worked together for a bit longer than it should normally take, but when they finished the gift Fitz had struggled with, it looked nice. 

Fitz stuck a bow on the top and smiled proudly. “There.” He looked up and Mack nodded.

“See? Teamwork.” He tipped his head to the cardboard boxes beside Fitz. “You gonna do all of those?”

Fitz nodded. “Yeah, it’s not much, but… well, everybody needs cheering up. I just made some things for everybody. We don’t really have the spirit for ‘Christmas’ but I figured gifts outside their doors on Christmas morning might cheer everybody up at least a bit.”

Mack looked at him for a long moment, just staring with an uninterpretable gaze before nodding. “Alright. We better get to wrapping then,” he said and Fitz beamed.

“Thank you for this,” he said, grabbing the paper again. “I was really getting frustrated.”

They wrapped for a while before Mack smirked suddenly. “So Fitz. One of these for me?” he asked, and Fitz gave him a stern look.

“I’m not telling you-“

“Awww c’mon, Turbo,” Mack drawled, pouting at him. “Did you get me a present?”

Fitz nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not telling you.”

Mach tilted his head, looking at him with wide, brown eyes. “Come on. It’s three days until Christmas. You’re really gonna make me wait?”

“Yep!” Fitz said, nodding for him to get to taping. 

Mack was quiet for a few moments before smiling playfully. “Is it… round?” Fitz glared. “Okay. Is it metallic?” Mack asked. “Is it plastic? Is it fabric? Is it electronic? Is it … a doorknob?” 

Fitz spluttered. “A _doorknob_? That’s your first guess?”

Mack grinned. “Is it some awesome little Fitz gadget?” he asked. “Tools? I like tools, too. Especially Fitz tools.”

Fitz chuckled. “You’ll have to guess. It’s very personal.”

“Is it naked pictures?” Mack joked and Fitz gaped.

“I- you- _why would I give you naked photos_?!” he asked, blushing.

Mack shrugged. “Hey, you said personal, not much more personal than nudes,” he teased and Fitz rolled his eyes. 

“You’re incorrigible,” he muttered.

Mack smirked, leaning closer. “You haven’t said it’s _not_.”

“The only people who have seen me naked since I was a child are doctors, none of them had cameras, so no, there are no nudes.” Fitz stopped, blushing suddenly. “Erm. Any chance you’d ignore that whole last thing? And definitely never tell Hunter?”

Mack gave him a wink and tastefully ignored Fitz’s confession. “Hey, you never know, the doctors might’ve saw you naked and thought ‘wow, someone with a butt this cute must be documented for posterity-“

“OH shut it, you!” Fitz laughed, shoving at him as he shook his head. 

Mack waved his hand. “Hey, I’m just saying, you should get Skye to hack the doctors’ hard drives just to be sure. You’ve got a cute butt, they might not have been able to help themselves.”

Fitz rolled his eyes. “You’ve never seen my bum-“

“Maybe not naked but in those pants?” He shook his head. “Definitely cutest butt in SHIELD.”

Fitz blushed and shoved the present at Mack. “Get to taping.” Mack did as Fitz said, but Fitz couldn’t help the squirming in his gut when Mack kept giving him meaningful looks while they worked.

~

On Christmas morning, Fitz stood outside Mack’s room, hoping that he hadn’t read the past few weeks wrong. A few others had already passed him, up early for the morning, and thanked him for their presents. When Mack’s door opened, Fitz was snatched from his thinking just in time to see Mack spot him. He smiled and started forward, only his toe nudged the present on the floor, making him look down. “Oh hey, my present!” Mack said, picking it up with his free hand, his left arm still in the sling. He stood up and held it up, looking at Fitz. “If I shake it, will it break it?”

Fitz shook his head. “No, if that was all it took it would be pointless.”

Mack nodded back at his door. “Come in while I open it?” he asked and Fitz nodded, walking to stand in the doorway while Mack put it down on his desk, unable to hold it and open it without worrying about dropping it. He sat and held it in place with his left hand while opening it with his right. When he got it unwrapped he opened the box and Fitz tensed nervously, because this was it. Mack pulled out the tissue paper wrapped object and peeled the paper away to reveal a black leather and silver metal bracelet. “Oh hey, this is nice,” Mack said, picking it up. He hefted it some, raising an eyebrow at Fitz. “This isn’t actual leather or and stainless steel is it?” he asked knowingly.

Fitz shook his head. “It’s a super low-density, ultra-strong synthetic material and the metal is one that doesn’t actually have a name. I sort of made it myself back in the Academy. I synthetized a new metal.”

Mack smiled, putting it on his left wrist. “This is really cool, Fitz. Thank you.”

“I’m the only one that knows how to trace it,” Fitz admitted in a nervous tone. Mack looked up curiously and Fitz gestured to the bracelet. “That metal has a specific signature. It’s harmless, but the radiation and magnetic signatures is one that can be tracked even places where electronics are blocked. I’ll obviously show you how the frequencies can be found with a tracking system, but…” He glanced down at his feet. “Now- now I’ll always be able to find you as long as you’re wearing that, and it’s indestructible, so it can’t break and fall off if you get lost, so unless you take it off, nobody will think to take it off you if they take you and I can find you, no matter what.”

Mack didn’t say anything for a few moments and Fitz worried for a moment that Mack was upset with him. He heard the chair move and kept his eyes down until Mack’s feet appeared in his frame of view. “Fitz,” he said softly and Fitz looked up, only to be met with a startlingly intense gaze. “Fitz, you didn’t have to do all that-“

“You don’t know what it was like,” Fitz interrupted, voice breaking on the last word. He swallowed hard, meeting Mack’s eyes. “It was a whole day and we- I thought you were dead, but I couldn’t even _know_ because we had no idea where you were.” He bit his bottom lip, shaking his head. “I didn’t want you to be alive and hopeless the way I had been. I almost hoped you were dead instead of spending a whole day suffering somewhere and thinking I wouldn’t find you, because I know what it feels like. Helpless-“ He stopped, clearing his throat. “Helplessness is the worst feeling. And I just don’t want that to ever happen to you.” He nodded at the bracelet. “Now you know that no matter what, as long as I’m able, I’ll find you. And I’ll come get you.”

Mack looked at Fitz and smiled. “Fitz-“

“I know it’s sort of creepy but I’m not stalking you, I’d never check up on you just because, it’s for if you’re missing-“

Mack cut him off with a laugh. “Fitz, stop.” He reached out with his right arm and rested his hand on Fitz’s side. He stepped closer, leaning down with a knowing smile. “Fitz, I love you, too,” he said softly.

Fitz’s eyes widened and he blushed. “I- I-“ He ducked his head. “Is it that obvious?” he muttered shyly, scratching at his neck as he looked back up.

Mack scrunched his nose. “Probably only to me?” he answered unsurely. He leaned closer, smiling. “I pay more attention to you than the others do,” he pointed out.

Fitz smiled shyly. “You do, huh?” Mack nodded and Fitz stepped closer, resting his hands on Mack’s sides. “I- I hoped, maybe, but I wasn’t sure so I kinda worried this was a creepy gift-“

“I already said I love you back, Turbo.” Mack leaned closer, pressing a kiss to Fitz’s forehead. “Trust me, I understand. And I’m going to demand you build something similar so I can always find you if you get taken from me, so it’s not creepy at all.”

Fitz tipped his head back and smiled up at Mack. “So you like it?” he asked and Mack grinned.

“You’re the smartest person I know and you used your brains to make me a life-saving bracelet just so I don’t get taken from you again. Even if it was a Hello Kitty wristwatch, I’d love it,” he said, sliding his hand to cup Fitz’s neck, pulling him in.

Fitz’s eyes fluttered shut as his lips brushed Mack’s. “Mack,” he murmured, standing up on his toes to kiss Mack more firmly, arms going around his neck. Mack hummed happily into the kiss, big, warm hand cradling the base of Fitz’s skull as they kissed. 

When they broke, both breathing a bit hard, Mack smiled, rubbing his nose against Fitz’s. “I’m not going anywhere, Turbo. Promise.”

“Good,” Fitz said, grinning up at him. “I’d just come after you,” he said, and Mack laughed, kissing Fitz sweetly once more.

“My hero.” He kissed Fitz’s head and hugged him close. “Merry Christmas, Turbo.”

“Merry Christmas,” Fitz said, voice muffled by Mack’s shirt as he snuggled in, content to just hold onto Mack for a little bit. 

They could rejoin the others in a little bit. It was Christmas, after all.


End file.
